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Public Art
A brief history of Winters
A group of men stand in front of a damaged building after the 1892 earthquakes. The DeVilbiss Hotel (now the Buckhorn Steakhouse) is one of the many buildings that survived the earthquake of 1892, but it lost it’s 72 foot tall cupola in a fire in 1915.
The Winters Express
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John Reid Wolfskill was the first American to settle the land that is now Yolo County when he arrived in July of 1842. He was granted the Rancho Rio De Los Putos, and built his home on the southern bank of Putah Creek, not far from the area that would someday become Win ters. He reported seeing multiple grizzly bears in the stretch of a few miles as he set out to propagate the cuttings and seeds he had brought from his older brother’s rancho in Los Angeles.
Grant Avenue still outlines the border to the original Wolfskill grant.
By 1858 the land was being subdivided and sold, which brought in more settlers. Two of the most influential newcomers were D. P. Edwards and Theodore Winters. Edwards and Winters would both provide 40 acres to start a town.
Yolo County records show that Winters was paid $5,000 for the land by the Vaca Valley Railroad Company. Because of his contributions to the region it was decided that the town built on the property he purchased would be named after Theodore (though they also considered naming it after his most successful racehorse: Norfolk).
The Advocate, an early newspaper in the region, referred to Theodore as simply, a “capitalist.” He trained Kentucky-bred racehorses on his stock ranch north of Putah Creek. A racecourse was built on the outskirts of the town.
The extension of the railroad line through Winters would mean huge changes for the town. Now they were connected to the rest of the country in a way they never could have been before. At one point the Winters depot saw three trains a day.
The railroad opened Winters to greater economic opportunities. Winters farmers could sell their produce on a national scale. The Winters Dried Fruit Company was established and moved 878,000 pounds of sundried fruit through their warehouse in their first year of operation. In the 1890’s the region became known as the “Winters Fruit Belt.”
In 1892, the unincorporated region established Yolo County’s first high school. That was also the year Winters was nearly destroyed by two earthquakes, both over a magnitude 6. Many of the buildings were damaged, but there were shockingly few casualties. Winters eventually recovered, unlike some of the neighboring towns. Now Winters commemorates the event with the yearly Earthquake Festival in August.
Winters incorporated on Feb. 9, 1898, nearly six decades after Wolfskill built his first dwelling on the banks of Putah Creek. Through many changes the city has maintained its strong agricultural heritage.
If these walls could speak!
Local murals celebrate Winters history
The Winters Participation Gallery has been the major stakeholder in the creation of murals around town that depict Winters history.
Winters History Mural artists and instructors gather each summer to work out the details of the projects. Valerie Whitworth, part of the Participation Gallery’s team, said the murals bring Winters history to both community members who are new to town and for those who already live here. Much care, consideration and research goes into the creation of each mural.
Artists (local youth and adults) work sideby-side to learn about the history of Winters as they look through historical photos, documents and stories from residents. From there the artists select symbols to tell a story about Winters history and bring it to life through the mural.
The Participation Gallery looks to support emerging artists and pair them with professionals to model how art can lead to a profession and experience the process first hand. The experience gives them an opportunity to gain skills, learn how to interact with clients and team members as well as about how the process works in itself. The last three installments artists were paired with Winters muralist, Jaime Montiel. Local Winters community member Celestino Galabasa Jr., also stepped in to work on the 2019 Winters Laundryworks mural project and the 2020 John Rogers building mural project.
“We wanted them to learn how they could do this as a profession,” said Whitworth.
The first mural was created by five Winters High School seniors on the back of the Anytime Fitness building on Newt’s Expressway. The second was created on the side of Lorenzo’s Market in the fall of 2018. The third installment on the Winters Laundryworks by First Northern Bank was completed over the summer of 2019. The most current mural was created from June through August 2020 on the east wall of the Rogers Building along Russell Boulevard.
Winters High School art teacher Kate Humphrey works alongside students on the design process from start to finish. Students spend time working with a client to learn about a vision for the mural. They then do research on Winters history for inspiration.
See MURALS, Page 24
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